By Mike Nowatzki
Forum News Service
BISMARCK – A white supremacist accused of terrorizing people in the small North Dakota town of Leith will be released on probation.
A judge accepted a plea agreement Tuesday in the case against Craig Cobb that doesn’t require Cobb to spend more time in jail.
ADVERTISEMENT
Cobb has sat in the Mercer County Jail in Stanton since he and follower Kynan Dutton were arrested Nov. 16 and charged with seven counts of felony terrorizing in connection with four incidents in Leith, including one that happened as they were on an armed patrol of property that Cobb had purchased with hopes of attracting enough like-minded people to take control of the town’s government and create an all-white community. One of the charges was later dismissed.
The plea agreement called for Cobb to serve four years of supervised probation but no additional jail time. He entered guilty pleas Feb. 27 to one charge of felony terrorizing and five counts of misdemeanor menacing, but South Central Judicial District Judge David Reich said he wanted more information before accepting the plea agreement and sentencing Cobb. Reich ordered a pre-sentence investigation, including a psychological evaluation.
In a phone interview from jail April 14, Cobb said if released on probation, he plans to move to his home state of Missouri if that state’s probation system will accept him.
“I’m just going to go and try to get a 62-year-old girlfriend and companion,” he said. “I want to retire from white nationalism, because I’ve had it.”
Reach Nowatzki at (701) 255-5607 or by email at mnowatzki@forumcomm.com .
